The Constitution and the Branches of Government

Landmark Civil Rights Cases

• Congress + Senate

• Presidency

• Rules

• Qualifications

• Impeachment

• Succession

• SUPREME COURT• Justices serve for life and

are appointed by the President.

• Power of judicial review• Decides what law is• Decides the meaning of

laws.• Not a court of personal

justice ex: Roe v. Wade

Essential Question

• How far should the government go to make sure minorities and women are not discriminated against in jobs, education and housing?

• Use the 14th amendment only? • Busing? • Affirmative action?

Landmark Civil Rights Cases

• DRED SCOTT V SANFORD (1857)

• PLESSY V FERGUSON (1896)

• BROWN V BOARD OF EDUCATION OF TOPEKA, KS (1954)

• BAKKE V UC DAVIS REGENTS (1978)

• PARENTS OF COMMUNITY SCHOOLS V SEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT (2006)

The anatomy of a court case: there must be a constitutional issue

at stake Brown v Board of Education (1954)

Plaintiff : person/group who is bringing the lawsuit or on whose behalf

the lawsuit is brought

Accused:

person or group being sued

Year case decided

The court’s decision

• Majority opinion –the decision that most justices voted for. (5 or more)

• Concurring opinion- agrees with majority but for different reasons/part of majority

• Dissenting opinion- the losing opinion but can still be important.

1857: Dred Scott case = Blacks had no standing to sue because they were property

1896: Plessy v Ferguson: “separate but equal”

1954: Brown v BOE: separate is NOT equal, schools must desegregate with “all deliberate speed.” white flight

1971: Swann v Mecklenburg BOE: forced busing to achieve racially balanced schools

2006: Parents of Community Schools v Seattle School District: Students cannot be assigned to schools solely on the basis of race only.

Dred Scott v Sanford (1857) • Sued for his freedom • S C ruled that slaves

were property and thus could never be citizens

• SC rules that therefore, Congress cannot prohibit slavery in the territories.

Plessy v Ferguson (1896):“separate but equal”

• Plessy said that being forced to ride in a “colored” rail car violated the 14th amendment

(= protection clause)• SC ruled 8-1 that separate

facilities did not violate his rights as long as they were “equal.”

PRECEDENT

• Relying on what court decisions said in the past

• Using previous court rulings to decide today’s cases

• But the Warren Court realized that the Plessy decision was flawed and so they overturned it.

Brown v Board of Education (1954)page 708

• Overturned “separate but equal”

• In an 9-0 decision the SC said that separate schools and facilities were inherently unequal.

• Why do you think it was important that this was a unanimous decision?

Result of Brown: MASSIVE RESISTANCE until……….

Eisenhower sends in the troops

Essential Question

• How far should the federal government go to make sure minorities and women are not discriminated against in jobs, education and housing?

• Use the 14th amendment only? • Busing? • Affirmative action? • What do you think?

Controversial solutions:1970’s and 80’s: Busing

Busing protests

Affirmative Action

• A policy which gives special consideration to minorities and women to make up for past discrimination.

TWO TYPES

“GOALS ANDTIME TABLES” QUOTAS

Why was Affirmative Action created?

• “Ability is stretched or stunted by the family that you live with and the neighborhood you live in — by the school you go to and the poverty or the richness of your surroundings. It is the product of a hundred unseen forces playing upon the little infant, the child and, finally, the man.”

Lyndon Johnson, on why he created Affirmative Action

More on Affirmative Action

• “You do not take a person hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, ‘you are free to compete with all others’”

Lyndon Johnson

Regents of the University of California v Bakke(1978):

Affirmative Action case p. 818

• Bakke had claimed that racial quotas in admissions had cost him a seat in medical school

• Divided SC ruled that race could be used as a factor in admissions but that quotas were not permissible

CASE

Issues

Plessy v Ferguson

(1896)

p. 290

Brown v. BOE(1954) p. 708

Facts of the case

Law (s) being interpreted

Related cases

(precedent)

Legal reasoning

Impact

Quiz 1

Plessy v Ferguson (1896)

1) 2) 3)

4) The above case established the doctrine of

“ ______________ but ____________”

5) Supreme Court justices are appointed for_________.

Quiz 2• 1) Identify the person

first and last name

• 2) Why did he sue for his freedom? Be specific using names of states, etc.

Quiz 2 - continued

• 3) What was the ruling in the case?

• 4) What effect did the ruling have? (historical impact)

• 5) Supreme Court justices serve for ______